All my dealings with John, both through his eBay offerings and personally have been absolutely top notch. His skin kits are first rate, and I actually have quite a few. I can hardly wait to do his Ragnarok rendition. He has always delivered and has been extremely helpful with any questions I have had (my needing some advice, especially).
Thanks to John for a first class product! It's obvious he really cares about what he produces.

100% agreed.

__________________
A dark night in a city that knows how to keep its secrets. But high above the quiet streets on the 12th floor of the Acme Building, one man is still trying to find the answers to life's persistent questions. Guy Noir, Private Eye.

I NEVER put money down on "pre orders" due to situations just like this.
If it isn't ' in stock' you get ZERO $$$$ with NO exceptions.

ALWAYS Under-Promise and Over-Deliver !
ANYTHING short of that is always an unacceptable excuse.

I must, sadly, agree (a too-trusting gun enthusiast friend of mine--a Vietnam veteran with PTSD who has great difficulty in standing up for himself--got burned multiple times by gun dealers and gunsmiths over pre-orders). His "beneficiaries" were either running the equivalent of pyramid schemes (buying parts for previous "waiting-in-line" customers with *his* money), or outright frauds, or older guys who had real--but unexpected--medical crises that they spent his money on. Also:

I have ordered several books from Amazon.com via pre-order (including as gifts to be sent to designated gift recipients) with no problems, but being a well-known, multi-million (or billion) dollar corporation which "sells" reliability along with their wares, they have a powerful built-in incentive to deliver on their given availability dates.

It's a tough thing for small producers to invest a lot of time and materials for an item that may or may not sell, typically I'll only release a kit if I'm pretty sure it will sell, or if it uses the majority of components that I already have, so the only investment I have to make is in templates and instructions. I typically only kit things that I have built for myself because I thought they were neat to start with.

The only time I've done pre-orders was for the Bomarc, Thunderchief and Skydart upscales that a few people really wanted me to make but that I didn't think would be a big return in general, I asked for enough pre-orders to make it worth my time to get the components and spend the time to make templates and kit those items and it has worked out ok. I had already built prototypes for my own use so I knew they flew well. In one case it was a model that I did not want to build for myself, but that design was straight forward enough and the customers were competent RC flyers so they took on the challenge of confirming my estimated boost CG and doing test glides and the test flights themselves.

However I certainly understand ordering vapor ware and not getting anything making people reluctant. I have had two transactions with John, one just recently with a design I asked him to work on that took a month or two but he did create it before asking for $$, and he has delivered both times.

It's a tough thing for small producers to invest a lot of time and materials for an item that may or may not sell, typically I'll only release a kit if I'm pretty sure it will sell, or if it uses the majority of components that I already have, so the only investment I have to make is in templates and instructions. I typically only kit things that I have built for myself because I thought they were neat to start with.

The only time I've done pre-orders was for the Bomarc, Thunderchief and Skydart upscales that a few people really wanted me to make but that I didn't think would be a big return in general, I asked for enough pre-orders to make it worth my time to get the components and spend the time to make templates and kit those items and it has worked out ok. I had already built prototypes for my own use so I knew they flew well. In one case it was a model that I did not want to build for myself, but that design was straight forward enough and the customers were competent RC flyers so they took on the challenge of confirming my estimated boost CG and doing test glides and the test flights themselves.

However I certainly understand ordering vapor ware and not getting anything making people reluctant. I have had two transactions with John, one just recently with a design I asked him to work on that took a month or two but he did create it before asking for $$, and he has delivered both times.

All of that sounds eminently reasonable to me, and with such cottage industry production, it does make financial sense in many cases to offer pre-ordering (particularly when the materials involved have a certain minimum-quantity "price break," which makes the per-unit cost lower once that point is passed, and:

To me, it's a judgement call. You've been on YORF for a long time (with no criticism from other members for anything--including not delivering on merchandise--as far as I can see), so I would have no qualms about making a pre-order for anything you offered; ditto for any "through-Shapeways" vendor. If some brand-new YORF member suddenly appeared offering items, I wouldn't go, "J'accuse!" at them, but I would check--if possible--first before committing to a pre-order, or even an order.

I am the customer mentioned in Johnís post. I have been in contact with John numerous times about different projects, and he has always delivered exemplary products as promised to me. I have no doubt that he will deliver the Saturn V skins in time. I have had and continue to have full confidence in his ability to deliver and will stand by him no matter what.

I am the customer mentioned in Johnís post. I have been in contact with John numerous times about different projects, and he has always delivered exemplary products as promised to me. I have no doubt that he will deliver the Saturn V skins in time. I have had and continue to have full confidence in his ability to deliver and will stand by him no matter what.

I'm with you; John Pursley is one of those who have been around--including in the hobby--for a *long* time, and I have never read or heard anything unkind about him and his character, and I wouldn't have any qualms about ordering (or pre-ordering) his products, either.